Mirza Sahiban

Mirza Sahiban places as one of the top tragic romantic tales based in Punjab, during the Mughal Empire in India, other were being Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punnun and Sohni Mahiwal, which belong to the regions of Punjab in both India and Pakistan, all of them having narratives in Punjabi. There are many others, possibly seven, such as Umar Marvi, Momal Rano, Lika Chanesar, Sohni Mahiwal, Noori Jam Tamachiand Dhaj, Sassi Punnun, and from Sindh and Baluchistan, the story of Ror Kumar, which are popularly known as Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s Seven Queens. In this list, the names of Sohni Mahiwal and Sassi Punnun are again included as they have inclusions in the culture of both Sindhi and Punjabi traditions. From the land of Punjab, these are nine important tragic romantic tales.

Love Story And Its Characters

Mirza belonged to Punjab, coming from the clan of Jats, specifically the Kharals, while Sahiban was from the tribe of Sial. From early childhood, they played and went to school together. Mahni Khan was the father of Sahiban, who was Kheewa chief, which was a town in the territory of Sial in Punjab’s Jhang district of Pakistan. Beautiful praises are showered by Shayer Pillo about the beauty in various words. He also says a lot about Mirza.

Mirza was Wanjhal Khan’s son, who was having the status of a Chaudhary or land baron in the tribe of Kharal Jat, in Jaranwala area town, which now is Pakistan’s Faisalabad.

In order to study, Mirza went to Khivan to the house of his relatives, and he fell in love with Sahiban in this place after meeting her. In later days, Sahiban was to wed Taha Khan belonging to the Chander Family, by arranged marriage customs, when she gave a message to Mirza through Karmu, a Brahmin, Mirza being at that time in a Dhanbad village.

On the other hand, the sister of Mirza requested her to not go for rescuing Sahiban, as it was also her own marriage day and wanted her brother to be by her side. Besides, his entire family warned that the Sial community was very violent and one shouldn’t interfere in their matters, but Mirza denied to be convinced.

Tragic End of Love Story

Mirza arrived at the wedding venue riding his mare, when the mehndi ceremony of Sahiban was going on and took her away. When the brothers of Sahiban found out regarding this, they followed them. While on the way, when Mirza was resting, nearby a tree, with his head on the lap of Sahiban, her brothers along with Chander caught them.

It was known to Sahiban that Mirza was an expert at archery and didn’t miss a target and believed that the arrows shot by Mirza would keep off her brothers. But, before she woke Mirza up, she broke the arrows, simply on the belief that if her brothers saw them together, they might possible have a change of mind and accept them into the family. She was hopeful of their love which existed between the sister and brothers. On the contrary, the brothers didn’t feel the same and there was a fight. Even though Mirza gave a valiant fight, he was easily outnumbered and a blow from a sword on his head, struck from behind. Sahibhan was not in favour of a blood fight, with people from both sides being killed and therefore she decided to kill her and then the fight ended. After the death of Mirza, she used the same sword belonging to Mirza and ended her life. Of the many such stories of valiant love, which emerged from Punjab, in Pakistan, the Mirza Sahiban’s story is one of the few ones, where the male protagonist’s name is taken first. This legend has now become a part of the culture of Punjab, where folk songs are sung by singers, some of which are Harbhajan Mann, Gurmeet Bawa, Kuldeep Manak and few more.